Daughter of Rainiandriantsilavo and Rambahinoro. Raised by her paternal uncle, Rainimaharavo, the commander-in-chief of the Malagasy army, the girl grew up in the animist faith of her ancestors. She began attending a Catholicschool at age 13 and was immediately drawn to the faith. A convert, baptized on 1 November1863, taking the name Victoire. A change in the national politics led to antipathy to the French and to Catholics; Victoire’s family, being part of the ruling class, put her in a Protestant school and threatened to make her an outcast if she held to her new faith, but she would not change. Victoire felt drawn to religious life, but her family arranged a marriage for her to Ratsimatahodriaka, a cousin and leading figure in the military; they were wed on 13 May1864. Her new husband was a violent, womanizing drunk, and all of Victoire’s friends urged her to divorce him; she refused, saying that marriage was a sacrament and could not be broken, and instead she prayed for his conversion.